PR professionals are not 'yes men' when pressured to be unethical, Baylor study finds
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| baylor.edu |
Public
relations professionals who have provided ethics counsel to senior management
are at least as fervent about serving the public interest -- sometimes even
more so -- as they are about their duty to their organizations, according to a
Baylor University researcher. A new study of 30 senior public relations
professionals, most of whom had served as an "organizational
conscience," showed the individuals viewed themselves as an
"independent voice" in the organization and not "mired by its
perspective or politics," said study author Marlene S. Neill, Ph.D., a
lecturer in the department of journalism, public relations and new media in
Baylor's College of Arts & Sciences.
The study, published in Journal of Mass Media Ethics: Exploring
Questions of Media Morality, was
co-authored by Minette Drumwright, Ph.D. , an associate professor of
advertising at the University of Texas at Austin.
Researchers
did in-depth interviews with senior public relations professionals in the
United States and Australia, with an average of 27 years of experience. All but
three had served as the chief public relations officers in their organizations,
which included corporations, nonprofit organizations and government entities;
and two of those also provided counsel in their roles in PR agencies for their
clients as external counselors.
Study
participants said they often were in the "kill the messenger"
predicament, making it tricky to give criticism to people who outranked them
and to persuade those people to agree with them, Neill said.
Speaking
up on sensitive ethical issues required courage, study participants said. A few
were fired or demoted for refusing to do something that was blatantly
unethical; two resigned when their advice was rejected, including one who
refused to include false information in a press release.
One
participant noted that "I can't afford to lose my credibility . . . As PR
professionals, it's all we have. And if I lose my credibility here, it's not
like I can just go start over with someone else, somewhere else."
One
individual said that the " 'yes man' has no value, no value
whatsoever" in PR. Another said one reason for her good relationship with
her company CEO is that "he can count on me to not always agree with
him."
Another
major barrier was a common misperception among senior executives that public
relations is nothing more than a tool of marketing, which limits PR
professionals' roles as problem solvers.
Crucial
to their jobs is a sound relationship with their organizations' legal counsels,
informants said. So is access to key decision makers, the better to ensure
"fire prevention" instead of "fire fighting" -- damage
control in a crisis.
Neill
said that participants were resourceful about how to communicate to management
without seeming judgmental.
One
participant contrasted her experience at an iron-fisted company -- in which
senior managers' attitude was one of "Do what I say, and don't question
me" -- with a more effective and positive experience at another company.
There, she said, "Nobody is belittled; the managers and executives don't
feel like you're questioning their authority. They're very much into a learning
mode. They ask a lot of questions; they very much are information
gathering."
Source: Baylor
University
a� / i n `� P� '>Anyone
handling tropical fish can use some basic precautions that should help, Miller-Morgan
said. Consumers should buy only healthy fish; avoid cleaning tanks with open
cuts or sores on their hands; use gloves; immediately remove sick fish from
tanks; consider quarantining all new fish in a separate tank for 30 days; wash
hands after working with fish; and never use antibiotics in a fish tank unless
actually treating a known fish disease caused by bacteria.
"We
don't think individuals should ever use antibiotics in a random, preventive or
prophylactic method," Miller-Morgan said. "Even hobbyists can learn
more about how to identify tropical fish parasites and diseases, and use
antibiotics only if a bacterial disease is diagnosed."
On an
industry level, he said, considerable progress could be made with improvements
in fish husbandry, better screening and handling, and use of quarantines,
rather than antibiotics, to reduce fish disease.
The
ornamental fish industry is large and diverse, including trade of more than
6,000 species of freshwater and marine fish from more than 100 different countries.
About half the supply originates in Asia, and freshwater farming of ornamental
fish is a rapidly growing industry.
Also increasing is the number of trained fish veterinarians, who
can help fish hobbyists to reduce disease loss and save treasured pets. More
information is available from the World Aquatic Veterinary Medical Association
and the American Association of Fish Veterinarians. A database of aquatic
veterinarians is available online, at http://aquavetmed.info
Source: Oregon
State University
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